--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 30 number: 2 published: 1926-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Editor’s Table,” *Improvement Era* 30, no. 2 (December 1926): 193–195." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3002unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3002unse start_page: 193 end_page: 195 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1926-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3002unse publication_year: 1926 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1926, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor’s Table Editors ^Table Who was Joseph Smith? "We Stand for a Testimony of the Divine Mission of Joseph Smith" He was the Prophet of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He was a son of Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack Smith, and was born in Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, December 23, 1805, one hundred and twenty-one years ago. He received his first vision in the Spring of 1820, in which he beheld God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. He obtained the plates of the Book of Mormon, under the direction of the Angel Moroni, September 22, 1827, pre- viously, in 1823, having been shown their resting place in the Hill Cumorah. He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist, May 15, 1829, and soon thereafter to the Melchizedek Priest- hood by the ancient apostles, Peter, James and John. He published the Book of Mormon yin 1830, which he had previously translated from the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim through the power and inspiration of God. Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the will and commandments of God, April 6, 1830. He established the British mission in 1837; founded Nauvoo in 1839, and gathered thousands of the Saints; he preached the gospel; he received at various times, from 1823 to 1844, revelations of the Lord for the building of the Church, which are found in the Doctrine and Covenants; and, having at last laid the secure foundation of God's "marvelous work and a wonder," he sealed the testimony lof his labors and mission with his blood in Carthage jail, June 27, 1844, where he and his brother Hyrum, the Patriarch, were brutally murdered by a mob. Prior to his assassination, he said: "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a Summer's morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, 'He was murdered in cold blood'." The scriptural counsel that led to his becoming wise, reads: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." (James 1:5.) s|e $ 4s ♦ ♦ "I love to contemplate the innocence and the artless simplicity of his boyhood. It bears record that he was honest, that he was led 194 IMPROVEMENT ERA > by the Spirit of God to perform his wonderful mission. His wisdom came in revelations of God to him. I have myself sat upon his knee. He was so fond of children that he would go far out of his way to speak to a little one, which is to me a striking characteristic of true manhood. He had a like true love for the human race. He was a prophet of God, and I believe in his divine mission with all my heart, and in the authenticity and inspiration of the revelations which he received, and in the Book of Mormon, which he was instrumental in bringing forth." — President Joseph F. Smith. "His was the mind -of a prophet and a poet, than whom none mightier save the very Son of God, ever struck the harp of truth and made it vibrant to the music of the spheres. He produced the great poem called 'Mormonism,' the grandest and sublimest epic ever con- ceived and brought forth through the mind of man. He' stands upon the shoulders of former prophets and sees farther than any of the earlier seers, but above and beyond all is Christ, the Creator, the divine Author of this divinest of poems which, sounded as a prophecy in pre- existent spheres, finds its fullest human expression in the heaven- inspired song sung by the prophet of the last dispensation." — Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve. "The man of whom we speak, Joseph Smith, was the Prophet ot the Gospel of Christ in the latter days, through whom was opened the latest dispensation in the work of th? Lord — a dispensation called new, though characterized by the restoration of the authority and powers of all preceding epochs — this man is one whom men cannot forget or ignore, try as they may. His place in history is secure; his work is recognized as that of a mission delegated to him alone. There is but this answer to the greatest question of the age, Joseph Smith was truly the Prophet of the Most High God."- — James E. Talmage, of the Council of the Twelve. The English Press and the Latter-day Saints A district conference was held in London on October 10, and it was heralded by unsolicited announcements in several prominent journals, such as The Daily Express, The Evening Standard, and The Sunday Chronicle, influential papers of the country. The Chronicle devoted parts of three columns to an interview with one of the mis- sionaries, and in addition mentioned the conference, with editorial comment on the activities and status of the Latter-day Saints. A good portrait of the late President Joseph F. Smith accompanied the article. EDITORS' TABLE 195 The Millennial Star, from which this information is gathered, expresses appreciation for the liberal and fair publicity .accorded to the Church and our people by many of the really great and influential newspapers of the country. The truth, as impressed upon the country by the labors of President James E. Talmage and associates, and the visit of Captain Frankau to Utah, with his writings, seems to be bearing fruit. Correction Through a typographical error, it was stated in the November Improvement Era, in the article entitled, "England and the Jews," page 22, that Orson Hyde dedicated Palestine for the gathering of the Jews on Sunday, October 24, 1847. Of course, every person acquainted with Church history will know that this is an error. The land was dedicated by Elder Orson Hyde on the 24th of October, 1841. (See History of the Church, vol. IV, p. 456.) Books A new edition of A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, illustrated, revised and enlarged, has just been issued. This work, written by Edward H. Anderson, was first published in 1893, and since then many reprints and four revised editions have been issued. The present edition has fifty-one chapters, 245 pages, including a seven- page index. It has a page-picture of each of the seven presidents of the Church; and a page-portrait of all former presidents of the Church, with the present First Presidency, Council of Twelve, Presiding Patriarch, Seven Presidents of Seventy and the Presiding Bishopric. The book is divided into seven parts, the last, added to this edition, touching items in the administra- tion of President Hcber J. Grant. It treats briefly the leading incidents in the history of the Church from the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the present time, and is written especially to create faith and interest in the youth of the Church in the marvelous work and sacrifices of the founders of this great latter-day religious fabric. Visitors and other persons, who have neither time nor inclination to read the more ponderous books on the subject, may obtain from this source reliable and authentic information concerning the inception, growth and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book is published by the missions of the Church in America, and comes from the press of Zion's Printing and Publishing Company, Inde- pendence, Jackson county, Missouri. It is sold for 25c a copy, in paper cover. The book may be read with profit by all who desire brief and reliable information on the leading events and achievements of the Church. Sold by the twelve missions of the L. D. S. Church in the United States and Canada, including the Bureau of Information; also by the Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah.